In Zimbabwe, journalist detained for covering demonstration

Police detained for several hours a reporter for the independent Daily Newson July 3, 2014, local journalists told CPJ. Helen Kadirire was held in Mutoko, a town 143 kilometres (89 miles) east of the capital, Harare, after she started to cover a demonstration by the Mutoko North Development Trust, a local community organization, according to local reports.

Members of the organization began to demonstrate after directors of another company failed to appear for a meeting to discuss community development projects.

Police arrested Kadirire and members of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association and accused them of inciting the local population to protest, Kadirire said in a Daily News article. She was detained for several hours but eventually released without charge the next day.

The Daily News was shuttered in 2003 for seven years for lacking state accreditation under Zimbabwe's notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The law, which came into effect in 2002, requires all journalists and media companies to register.